Have a little candy in your cake

Recipe Finder

When it comes to meatballs and cake, these two requests will offer you a snicker and an aloha.

Tanya Floam of Westminster requested a Snickers-bar cake recipe.

"I'm from the Ukraine, and I love to cook and bake," she wrote. "My husband is not a big dessert eater, and the only dessert he will order is a Snickers-bar cake. If you could find a recipe, I'd love to surprise him."

Combine candy bars and 1/2 -cup melted margarine in a saucepan, place over low heat until candy bars are melted, stirring constantly. Cool.

Cream sugar and 1/2 cup softened margarine until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in vanilla. Combine buttermilk and soda and add to creamed mixture alternately with flour, beating well after each addition. Stir in candy-bar mixture and pecans.

Pour into a greased and floured 10-inch tube pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 20 minutes or until done.

Let cool in pan for 1 hour. Remove from pan and frost with milk-chocolate frosting.

Frosting

2 1/2 cups sugar

1 can evaporated milk

1/2 cup melted margarine

1 (6-ounce) package semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup marshmallow cream

Combine sugar, milk and margarine in a heavy saucepan. Cook over medium heat until a small amount dropped in cold water forms a ball.

Remove from heat and add chocolate chips and marshmallow cream, stirring until melted. If necessary, add a small amount of milk to make spreading consistency.

Now you can say aloha to the Waikiki meatballs that Mrs. Joseph Wendling of Baltimore requested.

"All I know is that it has brown sugar and pineapple in it," she wrote.

Chef Gilles Syglowski chose a recipe from Beverly Bostian of Taneytown, who noted that "the dish is very tasty, and I make it every year for our family reunion, and every year it gets rave reviews."

Waikiki meatballs

Serves 6

1 1/2 pounds ground beef

2/3 cup cracker crumbs

1/3 cup minced onion

1 egg

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/4 teaspoon ginger

1/4 cup milk

1 tablespoon shortening

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1 can (13 1/2 -ounce) pineapple tidbits, drained, reserve syrup

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/3 cup vinegar

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1/3 cup chopped green pepper

Mix thoroughly the beef, crumbs, onion, egg, salt, ginger and milk. Shape mixture by full tablespoons rounded into balls. Melt shortening in large skillet, brown and cook meatballs, then remove from skillet and keep warm. Pour fat from skillet.

Bostian notes that she uses crushed pineapple instead of the tidbits and she prefers Italian bread crumbs for the added flavor.

Recipe requests

Gail Johnson of Lillington, N.C., wants an orange Jell-O cake recipe, "which uses apricot nectar in the batter and has a glaze made with fresh-squeezed orange juice and powdered sugar."

Wandy Bussard of Baltimore writes: "My Norwegian grandmother used to make wonderful little chewy brown cookies with nuts and currants in them. They were about the size of a walnut and spicy. It would be wonderful if someone had this recipe for me."

Rachelann Plucker of Sioux Falls, S.D., writes that she would appreciate help in finding a recipe for sweet-and-sour red cabbage.

Thomas Gregorek of Baltimore remembers when he was "a student at St. Elizabeth's Elementary School during the '60s, and the soft pretzels served at noon [for] a nickel. Is it possible to obtain their recipe or a similar one for soft pretzels?"

Chefs Syglowski and Rigby, with the help of chefs and students at the Baltimore International College, tested these recipes.

If you are looking for a recipe or can answer a request for a long-gone recipe, maybe we can help. Write to Ellen Hawks, Recipe Finder, The Sun, 501 N. Calvert St., Baltimore 21278.

If you send in more than one recipe, put each on a separate sheet of paper with your name, address and phone number. Please note the number of servings each recipe makes. We will test the first 12 recipes sent to us.